From Paper to Pixels

Lindsey Arent
08.31.99

This fall, when it's time for fourth-graders at Resurrection Catholic School to open their books, they're going to have to boot up their electronic readers.

Starting Tuesday, each of the 29 students in Miss Thompson's Dayton, Ohio class will have replaced their regular old, paper textbooks for shiny new eBooks in an 11-week "paperless learning" pilot project.

The goal of the project is to see if electronic books can save schools money, time, and space by switching from pulp to pixels.

"Schools have the same problems businesses have -- the paper blob," said Eric Walusis, president of Searchlight eBook Training, a consulting firm that specializes in the transfer of content from paper to digital formats. "There's a lot of incentive to convert to digital material."

As part of the test program, students will use the Franklin Rocket eBook, a US$299 handheld electronic reading device that stores up to 4,000 pages of text and graphics.

Unlike PDAs and PCs, eBooks have a single dedicated application -- they present digital text on a screen.

Like a PalmPilot, the eBook comes with a cradle that connects to a PC from which teachers can download materials and store it on their eBooks, to be transmitted to students later.

In order for students to receive updated information on their eBooks, pupils must sync their eBooks to the teacher's device one at a time. But that will eventually change, Walusis said.

Why the rush to replace good old-fashioned books with electronic devices?

For one thing, they're efficient, Walusis said.

"Very few classrooms can afford to give kids laptops," he said. "These kids are going to have 24-hour access. They can take the eBooks anywhere."

Other reasons to switch to a digital format, Walusis said, are to stay on top of changes in education and to keep current. "The class we're working with is using textbooks from 1991 that still mention the Soviet Union in them," Walusis said. With the eBook, new materials with new facts can be downloaded every day.

Then there is the environmental aspect. Debra Johnson, principal of Resurrection School, said she is thrilled to see an end to the mountains of paper that collect in her school each year.

"By streamlining the amount of paperwork both students and teachers must manage on a daily basis, the hope is that a more concentrated effort can be placed on learning," she said in a statement.

The goal of the program is to save some of the time educators spend collecting and updating class materials, but critics say the device will have little effect on the way kids learn.

"The real power of technology is to unleash new forms of learning for kids with resources and with people," said Ed Coughlin, an education technology specialist with the Milken Exchange on Education Technology. "Simply automating the presentation of textbook materials doesnt change anything."

To be sure, there are still plenty of kinks that have yet to be worked out.

There are limitations on the materials that teachers can download and offer to students, for example. So far, Miss Thompson's class can only use material that is in the public domain and has no copyright restrictions.

And it is still unclear whether major education publishers will participate in the new format.

"We need to show that the technology is viable to get more publishers on board," said Walusis. "If McGraw Hill provides the electronic version of textbooks, the school is still going to have to buy books. But there could be an electronic subscription to updated information."

Though the project is funded for only 11 weeks, Walusis, who is currently searching for more funds for the program, said the eBook's educational and environmental potential could provide an "enormous opportunity" for education.

"Anywhere that paper exists is potentially an application for an eBook."